Skating On Thin Ice
by PLLCanada
Summary: ABANDONED - This would be considered AU, since Charlie is just a figment of my imagination. Charlie is on the hockey team with Santana, where she is quickly introduced to Quinn. It doesn't take long before the two girls are friends. Is there more?
1. New Town, New Team, New Friends

**A/N: I know I've only written one fan-fiction story before, but for some reason I seem to have a serious case of writers block and this story is my attempt to cure it.**

**There are many things I love in life, three of them being Glee, hockey and girls. So here is a mash-up of all three!**

**I really hope you enjoy this first chapter and I'll try my best to get another one up by Friday.**

"Starting at right defence, number 24, Ashley Smith... On left defence, number 2, your captain, Charlotte Gauthier... At rightwing, number 14, Michelle Reid... On the leftwing, number 16, Christine Bentley... Starting at centre, number 23, Santana Lopez... And starting in goal, number 33, Bree Samson." The crowd cheered moderately for each name. As the voice on the loudspeaker announced the starting lineups, with as much enthusiasm as a forty-something year old man could have, while being the announcer for a high school girl's hockey game.

Hockey wasn't a very popular sport in Ohio, so when William McKinley high school decided to hold tryouts for a boys and girls team, it was met with much skepticism. The school was able to scrape together just enough players for each team, with the help of Miss. Pillsbury, who was able to convince Santana -who was fresh off of leaving the cheerios- to join the team, along with a few other stragglers.

Charlie was one of the few people on the team who had actually played hockey before. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, moved to Toronto, Ontario when she was two and had lived there until this past summer, when her father's work had sent their family to the subdue town of Lima, Ohio. She was Canadian, so of course she grew up around hockey and she'd even been an all-province player back in Ontario. So Lima hockey was a piece of cake, to say the least.

It was the first game of the season and other than a few light practices to work on "team bonding" as coach Stevens had put, which Charlie took as "I don't think the team is going to do very well, so let's just try and keep the team aspect as peaceful as possible."

To everyone's surprise, the team kicked serious ass. They won the game by a landslide, 7-2. Thanks in part Santana who had 2 goals and three assists and Charlie who put up a goal and 5 assists.

No one, including Santana herself had any idea she could actually play the game and play it extremely well at that.

The team made their way into the locker room, all of them content with their performance and after a few words from their coach they started to talk amongst themselves and pack up their equipment.

"Hey, great game out there tonight." Charlie said, turning to her left to look at the Latina, who was only wearing the bottom half of her equipment, along with a black spandex shirt and was drinking some chocolate milk out of a large carton.

"You're not so bad yourself, even though you do kind of have an advantage coming from the hockey capital of the world and everything." Santana quickly replied, not wasting any time getting a quick jab in at her new teammate.

"Haha, yeah I guess that is kind of true." Charlie returned kindly. She'd heard about how rude the brunette was to most people and even though she had tons of sarcastic responses to the statement and could easily take the Latina, she knew it was in everyone's best interest if she stayed on her good side.

The conversation quickly faded and after a quick shower and several minutes spent trying to brush out and style her very curly brown hair, Charlie grabbed her belongings and made her way out to the lobby. She looked around for a few moments, trying to spot either of her parents, to no avail. She was headed towards the door, ready to walk home. When a hand quickly grabbed her arm.

"Tres beau but." A blonde girl said to her, with her hand still attached to Charlie's arm.

"Huh? Oh, thanks." Charlie replied, clearly confused as to why someone was attempting to speak to her in French.

"Wait, how do you speak English?"

"The normal way." Charlie shot back sarcastically.

"But your last name sounds all frenchy?" Brittany added, with a puzzled look on her face.

"It is French, but I can speak English. " Charlie replied, trying to explain in simple form to the blonde.

"Oh... Anyways, I'm Brittany, you already know Santana and this is Quinn." Brittany said, pointing at each of her friends as she said their names.

"It's Charlotte, right?" Quinn added, now jumping into the conversation.

"Yeah, but you can call me Charlie if you want." Charlie answered, giving Quinn an endearing look.

"Ok Charlie, you were great out there tonight. You and Santana really carried the team on your shoulders."

Before she could say anything in return, the coach interrupted everyone.

"Ok, no practice tomorrow, but there is another home game Wednesday at 6pm. So be prepared."

Most of the players were already heading out with their families, as Charlie still looked around for hers.

"Man, I'm starving." Santana said to the two blondes she was standing beside.

"You want to go to Breadstix? My curfew's not until 10."'Quinn looked down at her watch. "So we have about 2 hours."

"Yes. " Santana swiftly answered in a deep tone.

The three started towards the door to leave, when Quinn quickly turned back around.

"Hey Charlie." The curly haired brunette quickly turned her attention towards the door, where the blonde girl was standing.

"You want to come with us to get something to eat?" Quinn asked, pointing outside towards her two friends by her car.

Charlie was a fairly quiet person, who preferred to keep to herself, but for some reason the blonde girl by the door had some sort of power of her and couldn't find it in her to reject the proposal.

"Sure." Charlie answered after giving it little thought and a quick glance around the lobby to see if her parents had shown up. Nothing, so she made her way over to the door, which Quinn held open for her.

"After you, miss 'second star of the game'" Quinn chuckled as she led the brunette to her car where Santana and Brittany were tickling each other.


	2. Car Rides, Dinner, Awkward Goodbyes

All four girls made their way over to Quinn's car, Santana and Brittany quickly jumped into the backseat. Quinn was driving, so that left the front passenger seat open for Charlie.

The car started, seatbelts were fastened - Quinn and Charlie's were at least. Santana and Brittany were still busy tickling each other - and before they knew it, the car was pulling out of the parking lot.

"So… you're from Canada, eh?" Quinn politely asked, giving Charlie a quick grin and a raise of the eyebrow, to add to her Canadian stereotype of saying 'eh'.

"Heh, yup. Born in Quebec, raised in Ontario." Charlie replied, returning Quinn's smile.

"That's cool and don't worry, my Canadian jokes end there. I have an uncle who lives in Canada, so I've been there a couple times and know that it's not like most American's claim."

"Nice, whereabouts in Canada?" Charlie asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"The west coast, Vancouver to be exact."

"Wow, you even know where some places are in Canada… and I thought you Americans were oblivious." Charlie returned, her mouth oozing with sarcasm.

"Ouch!" Quinn faked looking offended. "No, not all of us, although I wouldn't suggest you ask Brittany, she's definitely not the brightest bulb." Quinn couldn't believe how easy Charlie was to talk to.

Quinn looked into the backseat, where she saw her two friends sitting there, sharing headphones that were plugged into one of their iPods.

"Music?" Quinn asked, pointing towards the car radio.

"Huh? Oh, sure." Charlie replied, taking a second to realize what Quinn was referring to.

Quinn was so used to listening to CDs or rather, being forced to listen to Santana's. So it took her a second to find a station that wasn't static. The first one they found was country. Quinn, looking ahead grimaced and then turned to Charlie who had the same look on her face. 'Thank god' Quinn thought to herself.

She started to fiddle with the tuning knob, before it landed on another station.

"You're listening to 104.9 The Eagle, Classic Rock That Really Rocks." The pre-recorded voice on the radio said.

A song started and Quinn recognized the song immediately, the snaps really gave it away.

_**She keeps Moet et Chandon **_

_**In a pretty cabinet **_

_**'Let them eat cake' she says **_

_**Just like Marie Antoinette**_

She looked over to the brunette sitting in the seat next to her. She couldn't believe her eyes, she knew all the words and was singing along. Not missing a beat, Quinn jumped in as well.

_**A built-in remedy **_

_**For Khrushchev and Kennedy **_

_**At anytime an invitation **_

_**You can't decline **_

_**Caviar and cigarettes **_

_**Well versed in etiquette **_

_**Extraordinarily nice **_

_**She's a Killer Queen **_

_**Gunpowder, Gelatine**_

_**Dynamite with a laser beam **_

_**Guaranteed to blow your mind **_

_**Anytime**_

The ride to Breadstix wasn't very long, so by the time the song ended they were pulling into the restaurant's parking lot. Santana and Brittany, who were cuddled into each other -still plugged into the iPod -, were either asleep or were starting to doze off.

"Hey! Get off your asses, we're here." Quinn nearly yelled, intentionally trying to get on Santana's nerves.

"What the f-" Santana started, before noticing the blonde girl that was still sound asleep on her shoulder. "Shut up Fabray." Santana looked down to her left and rubbed Brittany's cheek. "Hey, we're here." She said softly, trying not to startle the girl."

Not even a few minutes later, the four girls were seated at a booth. Santana and Brittany on one side, Quinn and Charlie on the other.

Not much was said until their breadsticks arrived -which instantly woke Santana up- and their drink orders were taken.

"You have a really nice voice, by the way." Quinn turned and said to Charlie.

"Pardon?" Charlie replied, clearly confused as to where that compliment came from.

"In the car, when we were singing along." Quinn made sure the brunette understood what she was talking about before she continued. "Your voice is very nice and not to sound like Rachel Berry, but… you should come join glee club."

"Who is Rachel Berry and what's glee club?" The confused look returning to her face.

"Hmm, let's see. Rachel… Rachel is-" Quinn started, before being interrupted by Santana.

"A bitch, diva and goody two-shoes."

"Oh, I see and glee club?"

"You guys have choir up north, right? It's like that." Quinn explained quickly, trying to beat Santana to the punch.

"But with dancing." Brittany added, with half a breadstick shoved into her mouth.

Charlie just nodded, not quite sure what to say or when to say it.

"This will probably sound totally cliché, but it's also a great place to meet people and with you being new and all, that's probably not such a bad thing." She gave Charlie a quick look to make sure they were on the same page. " And you'll need more than just jock friends around here." Quinn continued, punctuating her sentence with a slight chuckle.

"I've never really sung before, so-" Charlie responded, before being cutoff by Quinn.

"Most of us haven't."

"Except for Rachel." Santana quickly pointed out.

"Yeah, a few of them have taken lessons and stuff before, but-"

"I am way better than all of them and my girl here." Santana put her arms around Brittany's shoulders. " Can dance fucking circles around all of them."

Brittany smiled and blushed a little, before giving Santana a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks S."

"I'll think about." Charlie said, giving Quinn a gentle smile.

"Cool. Well Mr. Schuester, the Spanish teacher is head of the glee club. So if you decide you want to try out, just go talk to him… Although, trying out isn't actually necessary, since he basically lets anyone join." Quinn added, pushing her eyebrows together, bewildered as to how easy it was to join glee club.

Charlie couldn't stand how cute Quinn was when she looked like that or how cute she looked at any other time. 'Settle your shit down' she thought to herself, before she looked down at her pasta that had just arrived.

The actual eating part of dinner was fairly quiet, mainly because their mouths were always full. Near the end of the meal Brittany turned to Santana and said "lady and the tramp." Before placing a piece of pasta in her mouth.

Santana quickly glanced up at the two sitting across from her at the table, but put the other end of the pasta in her mouth anyway. They each made their way to the middle of the piece, before their lips met.

'Did they just kiss?' Charlie thought to herself, making sure not to say anything out loud. She was on Santana's good side and she did not want to see the Latina turn.

Their lips weren't together for too long, maybe a second or two, but after their kiss Brittany licked the spaghetti sauce that clung to the brunette's lips.

"There, got it all." Brittany said firmly, giving Santana a full ecstatic smile.

The four girls split the check, before heading back to Quinn's car.

"Where do you live?" Quinn asked Charlie, who was once again sitting in the front passenger seat.

"431 Dudley, it's just a few-"

"No freaking way, you're the new family aren't you? I live at 412 Dudley. I thought I recognized your curly brown hair, when I saw you at the arena." Quinn replied, clearly elated.

"Wow, what a small world, eh?" Charlie returned, quickly realizing she'd just used the most Canadian term.

"Yeah, I guess so... _Eh_." Quinn nudged the brunette next to her with her elbow, not missing what she had just said. "So I'll drop these two off at Santana's first, then I'll take you home."

"Sounds good." Charlie said, slightly nervous about the thought of being in the car alone with Quinn.

A couple songs of the radio later and they'd arrived at 'Casa de Lopez' as Quinn referred to it or 'Casa de love' as Brittany put it. 'They could not make this any more obvious', Charlie thought to herself.

"See you guys at school tomorrow!" Brittany said enthusiastically.

"Come on Brit, we're wasting time." Santana added sharply.

'Wasting time for what? No, don't even go there.' Charlie said to herself.

"On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again." Quinn started to sing/hum under her breath as she pulled out of the driveway.

Charlie couldn't help but giggle at the blonde girl sitting next her.

"I think I'll try out for glee club." Charlie said once they were back on the main road.

"Really? That's awesome, you won't regret it."

"You guys mentioned something about being cheerleaders before, which I assume means you guys are popular. So don't get me wrong when I say this, but…" She took a deep breath, trying to think of a way to not insult the other girl. "Why are you all in glee club? I don't mean to be rude or anything like that, but it seems kind of… strange."

Quinn understood where Charlie was coming from, so she answered honestly, not taking what she said as an insult in any form. "Last year." Quinn stopped, choosing her words wisely, as to not unload too much on the brunette. "Some things happened and I wasn't so popular, but they were all still there for me. It showed me what real friends are actually like."

"I know what you mean. At my old school the hockey team was the same way for me." Charlie returned, before giving Quinn a quick smile.

Neither of them asked each other what they meant by 'there for me'. Which made sense, considering they'd only known the other for a few hours and now was not the time to tell their life stories.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the Gauthier home.

"I'd invite you over to my house, but it's nearly ten and my mom isn't too keen on me having people over past curfew." Quinn said, giving Charlie an apologetic look.

"No, that's cool. I'll see you tomorrow though. Thanks for the ride and sing-along session." Charlie quickly returned, giving Quinn a smile, before getting out of the car.

"Heh, yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." Quinn replied, waving to the brunette, who had backed up a few steps from the car. Quinn drove off.

Charlie hadn't even made it to her front door, before she heard Quinn's car horn honk as she locked it. Not knowing what else to do, the two just waved to each other.

As they got to their respective doors, they quietly mumbled to themselves.

"Well that was awkward."


	3. Shower, Breakfast, Time For School

6:30am Charlie awoke to the aggravating sound of her alarm clock.

"Fuck off." The brunette mumbled into her pillow, still very much asleep. "I heard you the first seventeen times." She added, before finally turning her attention to the irritating object and slapped the 'OFF' button with her hand.

Every school day morning she had the same routine and today was no different. Walk to the washroom and start the water to heat it up. Grab a towel from under her sink and place it on top of the closed toilet seat. Undress, place pajamas on the counter and step into the water, before quickly realizing it was too cold and turning the knob another inch to the left to turn up the heat. It always calmed her to know that things were the same, even though she was kilometers - or rather miles, as she should start referring to them - from where she'd grown up.

She'd never admit it, but Charlie had a shower song.

_**Now, this is the story all about how**_

_**My life got flipped-turned upside down**_

_**And I'd like to take a minute**_

_**Just sit right there**_

_**I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air. **_

She always found it embarrassing that she remembered these lyrics so easily; she never really watched the show when she was younger and even when she did, she'd usually miss the opening sequence. She knew the water drowned out her voice, so she was never worried someone might hear her, so she sung - or rather rapped- it anyway.

Charlie's hair was extremely thick, so she always had to 'de-knot', which took several minutes. Clean and condition it, followed by rinsing each product out, which usually took the longest.

She hated her hair, but she knew it wouldn't look right any other way. So she stuck with it and its laborious upkeep.

Around fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the shower. Towel dried her entire body and once most of her skin was fairly dry, she wrapped the towel around her hair to halt any drips of water that would drip from it. A brush of the teeth and an application of deodorant later, she removed the towel from her hair and wrapped it like a dress around her chest. She always claimed that this was the only time she would ever be in something remotely dress-like.

She threw on some undergarments, a pair of jeans with a leather belt, a plain heather grey T-Shirt, a pair of plain white socks and to finish off her outfit, she placed a red and navy blue flannel shirt on her torso, to cover her somewhat bare arms.

Back in the bathroom, she parted her hair more or less to the side and placed hair cream in her curls. It didn't matter what season it was, her hair naturally frizzed. So she could never leave the house (presentably) without stuff in her hair to hold it down.

Her morning routine never took more than thirty minutes, so by 7am she was downstairs eating cheerios.

Mrs. Gauthier was the first of her parents to appear from their bedroom, she walked down the stairs dressed and ready to go to her job as a pediatric surgeon at the Lima General Hospital.

"Hey hon, how was your game last night?" She said cheerfully, her French accent nearly masked. She walked over to give her daughter a peck on the forehead, before heading to the coffee maker.

"Not bad, we won." Charlie mumbled, her mouth full of cheerios and milk.

"So I guess nothing's changed then, huh?" The older brunette giggled, turning away from the coffeemaker to nudge Charlie on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess not." Charlie replied after finishing off her bowl of cereal.

"Good morning." A deeper, clearly French voice said, coming from the stairs.

"Morning dad." Charlie returned, knowing she had to say something or he would assume something was wrong.

Her parents then went into their morning routine, which consisted of what seemed like a million kisses and several pats on the bum.

"Hey!" Charlie nearly yelled, clearly embarrassed by her parents touchy-feelyness.

"What?" Both of her parents turned towards her.

"Um…" She needed to think of something to get them to stop. "Where is Chris?" Her younger brother was the first thing that popped into her head.

"Hey, Christian? Vous n'avez que dix minutes pour obtenir votre âne sortir du lit ou vous serez en retard pour l'école!" Her father, Étienne shouted from the bottom of the stairs, towards her brother's room a storey up.

"Can't you let a guy rest in peace?" He replied, emerging from his bedroom still in his sleepwear.

"No, not if that guy has school in twenty-five minutes." Her mother, Diane replied.

"Yeah and if he doesn't go to school today, that means he can't play in tonight's game." Her father added, taking a sip of the coffee that'd been made for him. Her brother had played AAA hockey back home and was ready to be drafted into the OHL, despite his mother pleading that he instead go play in the NCAA in a few years.

Since the move he'd tried out and made the McKinley high boys team and the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets, which was another AAA team, even though he'd have to drive over an hour to get to the arena, he knew it was his best option to get some recognition from scouts.

Most would think that playing hockey four or five times a week would be a lot for a fifteen year old to handle, never mind adding in school, but Chris was like a robot. He was a star defenceman for every team he'd played for and he earned mostly A's in school. It was pretty easy to say he was a perfect child, despite his inability to wake himself up in the morning.

"Ugh, whatever" Chris replied, walking into his washroom to get ready.

"Which reminds me, how was your game last night?" Her father asked, turning his attention to her.

"I already went over this with mom." Charlie replied.

"Okay, but you have to remember, I have not yet mastered the skill of mind-reading. So you'll have to communicate through words with me." Étienne returned playfully.

"It was fine, okay?" She answered, before asking the question she'd been thinking about since the night before. "Where were you guys though?"

"Sorry about that, I had a critical patient who needed surgery, so I didn't get back from the hospital until late." Her mother replied thoughtfully.

"And I had to hand the first five-thousand words of my new book in for review." Her father had been a senior editor for the Toronto Star and had written numerous editorials, before he pitched a story to an Ohio based publishing company and was signed on to write the book and to work as an editorial writer for the Lima News. He loved writing, so he didn't really care where he did it.

"I assume you found a way home from the arena though?" Her mother asked.

"Yeah, I got ride with a girl from the team and a couple of her friends." She replied, not bothering to add in that they'd gone for dinner and that one of them lived only a few houses down.

Chris came down the stairs, just as Charlie finished her sentence.

"Okay, I need two things. A banana and a ride to school." Chris stated while grabbing his backpack, which was hanging from the banister.

"Make that three things, you forgot manners." Their mother added jokingly.

"Haha, very funny… May I _**please**_ have a ride to school?" He re-stated.

"Not from me, sorry. I have pedes rotation this morning, so I have to be there in…" Diane looked at her watch. "Fifteen minutes, so I'll be late if I don't leave now and since your school isn't on the way, you're out of luck." She grabbed her coat from the closet, put on her shoes and grabbed her bag, before turning towards the door. "I'll see you guys tonight at Chris' game. Have a good day at school." She added, before leaving.

"Can I bum a ride with you?" Chris asked, turning towards his father.

"Sorry bud, I have a meeting at work in thirty minutes and I don't have anything prepared." He gave his son an apologetic look, before turning to his daughter. "But I'm sure Charlie can." He gave his son a pat on the back and his daughter a kiss on the cheek, before putting on his shoes and coat to leave. "I'll be back home at 4:30 to take you to your game, so make sure you've got everything ready for then." With that he was gone.

"Alright, hurry up and grab your shit because school starts in twenty minutes and I am not going to be late because you're an idiot." Charlie stated, before walking towards the front door and opening it. "Frig it's cold out." She grabbed a coat from the closet next to her and threw it on.

"Yeah, who'd a thought this place would be just as cold as home?" Chris returned.

"I sure as hell didn't." Charlie replied. "I'll be waiting in the car."

By the time she'd made it to the red 1997 Automatic Jeep Wrangler her parents had bought her as a 'Christmas, very early birthday, and congrats on getting your full license' present, put her bag in the backseat and started to warm up the car, her brother had finished doing whatever it was that he was doing and jumped into the truck.

"Did you lock the front door?" Charlie asked, before putting her hand on the gear shifter.

"Yes mom." Chris replied sarcastically.

Nothing was said after that, until they neared the student parking lot of McKinley High. The silence, with the exception of the sound of the radio was interrupted by Charlie.

"Oh and before I forget, can you tell mom and dad I won't be going to your game tonight?"

'Sure, but why aren't you?" Chris replied, not necessarily interested, but more so that he could explain her absence to their parents.

"Just tell them I'm meeting up with some friends." Charlie answered; she still wasn't a hundred percent sure about trying out for glee club afterschool.

"Whatever." Chris ended the conversation, before getting out of the parked Jeep and heading towards a side door into the school.

'Alright, math first.' Charlie thought to herself, as she too got out of the vehicle and headed towards the school. She'd been at McKinley for just over a week now, but she was still getting used to her timetable.

She turned back towards her truck, realizing she forgot to lock it.

With the reassuring sound of her car beeping, she went back to walking inside and entered the school.


	4. Assessments, Auditions, Assignments

**A/N: Before I start the chapter, I'd just like to explain when the story is taking place. **

**- It's late November 2010**

**- Charlie's family moved from Toronto to Lima a week or two before this.**

**- Sam is in Glee club, **

**- Lauren isn't, but that might change.**

**- Kurt is still at McKinley and I have no intention of him leaving.**

**- Artie and Brittany are not to together and will never be.**

**Pre-established/non-secret couples: Tina and Mike.**

**I think that's it, thanks for reading!**

Math had always been Charlie's best subject, even though over the past few years they'd introduced letters to the subject. She hated Algebra, but for whatever reason, she was actually pretty good at it.

The class had about twenty-five students, only three of which she actually knew and had conversations with (all from the hockey team). Charlie had always been a quiet person, despite the fact that both of her parents were outgoing - part Italian - Quebecers. She'd always claimed that the reason behind her quiet, tranquil demeanor was that she was conserving her energy for hockey. Which was mainly true.

Class went by like a breeze, they'd taken an evaluation quiz, which didn't count for anything, but since they were starting a new unit, they had to see where everyone was as far as comprehension.

Charlie made her way to her locker, which were sorted by grade and last name. Locker 1376 was hers and five to the left was Quinn's. They exchanged a quick wave, before they grabbed their books and headed to their next class, which they shared.

Mr. Schuester was one of those teachers that loved to be in the classroom when the students arrived. So there he sat, behind his desk, looking over what appeared to be today's lesson plan. Charlie had never taken Spanish before, but since she could speak French fluently it was surprisingly easy.

The bell rang and all twenty or so kids took their assigned seats. Somehow Santana and Brittany had managed to get seats next to each other, whereas the rest of the class was scattered evenly. No jocks sat next to other jocks and the same went for cheerleaders. Quinn was in the third row, with Charlie one seat ahead of her.

Mr. Schuester quickly checked over the class attendance to make sure everyone was present; they were. He then started his lesson.

"Alright guys, I have your marked evaluations ready to give back to you… Remember, they don't count towards your final grade. So any errors aren't the end of the world, it just means we'll just have to work on some things."

He moved away from his desk, which he was now standing behind and proceeded to hand back the two double-sided sheets of paper to each student.

'Nice.' Charlie thought to herself when she saw the 96%, which was written on the front page of her quiz. She knew it didn't count for anything, but she always took school seriously. So whenever she received a high mark, she made sure to give herself a pat on the back.

There were a few groans from surrounding students, which she took as 'Crap, I'm going to fail' or 'Great, now I'll need to actually pay attention'.

The rest of the period was filled with twenty minutes of reading a Spanish novel and forty minutes of explaining past tense, most of which was Santana and Mr. Schuester speaking directly to Brittany. Several students, Charlie included chuckled when Brittany still didn't understand.

The bell rang once again, signaling lunch. The class erupted out of their seats, before Mr. Schuester yelled over everyone.

"Don't forget to read chapter six, through eight of the novel by tomorrow."

Charlie made her way up to the front of the class; she knew this would be her best chance to ask Mr. Schuester if she could audition for Glee club.

"Hey, um… Mr. Schuester?" Charlie said hesitantly.

"Yes, Charlie. How can I help you?" He asked, picking up the pile of papers that were on his desk.

"I was wondering… Are you- Is the Glee club still accepting new people?" She inquired, clearly nervous.

"Yeah, always!" He replied enthusiastically. Charlie knew he loved teaching, but from the excitement in his voice, he clearly loved Glee club even more. "Were you thinking about trying out?"

Charlie just nodded.

"Well it isn't necessary to actually audition, but it's always nice to see what we're working with. So if you'd like, you can audition in front of the group afterschool or… When's your spare?" He asked, putting his papers back on the desk.

"After lunch."

"Okay, well I guess that won't work. So you'll have to perform for the whole group. Are you up for that? It's great practice."

"Yeah, that's fine." Charlie returned, trying not to sound too worried.

"Great, we meet in the choir room at three." Mr. Schuester said, giving Charlie a contented smile.

"Alright, I'll see you then." Charlie replied, returning the smile.

"Sounds good." He grabbed his papers once again and started to leave the classroom. "Great job on the quiz by the way." He added, stepping out into the hallway.

"Thanks." Charlie mumbled, realizing that the only way he could actually hear her now was if she yelled.

Charlie didn't even bother going to the cafeteria for lunch. She knew she wouldn't have enough time if she wanted to go home and rehearse her song. She'd figured it out last night, what song she was going to sing. It was a simple song and she could even play the few chords it consisted of on her dad's guitar.

The drive from McKinley to her house wasn't nearly as long as it was in the morning, which made sense since most people were either at school or work. In no more than five minutes she was home, she locked her car and unlocked the house, before she headed to the kitchen to make a quick sandwich, which she took upstairs.

It took her a few minutes, but she finally found her dad's guitar and tuner in his office. She brought it back to her room and got to work on practicing.

"Okay Charlie, you can do this. It's simple, three chords, that's it. You've played it a gazillion times." She stated, trying to psych herself up.

"A… G… A… G… A… G…" Charlie said, as she strummed the guitar up and down several times for each chord.

This continued for nearly an hour and a half, before she realized what time it was.

"Holy shit!" She exclaimed as she quickly ate the sandwich that had been sitting next to her on a plate, untouched since she had made it. She'd always had a fear of being late, so she grabbed the guitar and headed back downstairs, before leaving to return to school.

The drive back took nearly the same amount of time, so she still had twenty or so minutes to spare, which she spent listening to the song she was going to perform on her iPod.

Her last two classes of the day, History and Science seemed to go on for hours, mostly due to the fact that Charlie was as anxious as ever. She'd played on several sports teams and never once was nervous, she'd even given speeches and nothing more than a few butterflies, but this. This was different.

She was way out of her comfort zone. She only knew a handful of the people that were in Glee club, all of which she'd had dinner with the night before and that kind of scared her. She knew first impressions were important, so she **did not **want to screw up.

The last bell of the day finally rang. Charlie headed back to her locker, to put her books away, before heading out to her car to grab her father's guitar.

"You better not disappoint me." She whispered hastily to the inanimate object.

"Hey Charlie!" A very recognizable voice said, walking up behind her.

"Oh, hey Quinn." Charlie replied, trying to cool her pre-performance nerves.

"I was looking for you during lunch. I was going to see if you were still planning on joining Glee club, but from the look of the object in your hand, I'd have to guess that you are." Quinn returned playfully.

"Yup, I went home to get a guitar for the audition." Charlie explained, just as a cool November breeze caught her hair.

"Cool… So what song are you going to sing?" Quinn asked inquisitively.

Realizing Quinn's interest, Charlie responded calmly, with a slight charm. "I guess you'll just have to wait and find out with the rest of the group." She punctuated her sentence with an endearing smile.

"What? That's not fair." Quinn replied, ending with her doing her best puppy dog pout.

"No exceptions, sorry."

"Fine… Well I have to put some things in my car, so you should go get warmed and I'll see you in there." Quinn said, changing the subject as she gave Charlie a smile and turned to face where her car was parked. "Oh and good luck!" She added before walking away.

"Thanks." Charlie replied, walking back to the school with the guitar in hand.

It was 2:45 by the time she arrived in the choir room. She had assumed it'd be empty, but to her surprise, she saw a tiny brunette sitting on the bench behind the piano, mindlessly playing a few notes.

The girl behind the piano quickly shot her gaze from the piano, after she heard footsteps, to Charlie, who had just walked in the door. "Glee club has the room from three to four." She said politely, assuming that Charlie was here for something else.

"I've heard." Charlie replied in a polite sarcasm. "I'm actually here to try out." She added before walking over to one of the chairs by the wall.

"That's great!" The smaller brunette exclaimed, before continuing. "Well I'm Rachel Berry and as captain of the Glee club I wish you nothing but the best of luck in your musical endeavour…" Rachel stopped near the end of her statement, realizing she didn't know the other girl's name.

"Charlie… Charlie Gauthier." Charlie added, quickly realizing the smaller brunette had stopped.

"Oh right, right… Charlie Gauthier; captain of the hockey team, transfer from Canada, brother also plays hockey…" Rachel trailed off, before she saw Charlie's slightly frightened face. "I know everyone at this school."

Charlie gave her a questioning look.

"Not in a stalkerish way, I promise. I just like to be aware of my surroundings." Rachel tried to reassure her.

"Oh… That's cool." Charlie returned, not sure what she was supposed to say.

By the end of their short conversation Charlie was seated in a chair by the wall and had placed the guitar on her lap in playing position, before she started to rehearse the different chords.

"I may not play the guitar myself, but from seeing my Dad play for countless years, I've come to notice the best techniques for playing and if you're having trouble transitioning between chords, I would suggest you place your left thumb slightly further down on the back of the fret board." Rachel stated, not even looking up at Charlie.

She tried the new technique, which surprisingly did wonders. "Thanks." She returned, loud enough to be heard over her strumming and Rachel's piano playing.

Charlie was able to run through the song twice before the entire group was present and Mr. Schuester started with his meeting introduction.

"Alright, so I'm sure most of you have already noticed that we have an extra body in the room today. So if you're ready, Charlie the floor is all yours."

Charlie rose from her seat with her guitar, taking in a few deep breaths as she took the four steps to where Mr. Schuester had just been standing.

Brad, the piano player seemed to appear out of nowhere and asked her if she needed piano accompaniment.

She politely declined. "No, I think I've got it, but thanks."

Brad gave her a nodding smile, before she started strumming the guitar. She'd played the song numerous times today and many more times before, so she knew she had nothing to worry about.

_**When you wake what is it that you think of most?**_

_**When your bed is empty do you really sleep alone?**_

_**If I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**All around me new love and it makes me sad.**_

_**All around me feel assured that you'll be back,**_

_**If I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**Stop crying to the ocean, stop crying over me.**_

_**Stop worrying over nothing, stop worrying over me.**_

_**So it's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

There was a break in the song, which gave her just enough time to look around at some expressions. Santana and Brittany were tapping their feet in the front row. Quinn had a smile on her face. A guy in the back, sporting a Mohawk, who she was sure was Puck, was hitting his thigh along to the rhythm of the song. Then the last person she was able to get a response from, had bleach blonde hair and huge lips that were mouthing along, which made her wonder.

_**On the drive back here I was worrying over nothing.**_

_**On the drive back there tears spilling over something.**_

_**When I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**In the door and you're there and you're sorry for the fright. **_

_**In the door, can I hear you saying you don't wanna fight?**_

_**When I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**Stop crying to the ocean, stop crying over me.**_

_**Stop worrying over nothing, stop worrying over me.**_

_**So it's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

_**It's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

There was another break in the song. Big lips kid was still singing along, which forced Charlie to contain a chuckle for the sake of the song. Rachel was trying her best sway her shoulders to the song, a couple seats over from Brittany and Santana. Finally, Quinn was still smiling, which made Charlie smile as well.

_**In a flash it's back to you, just brought attention to the mess.**_

_**In a flash you're on top begging me to understand.**_

_**If I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**You dropped in for a minute and I'm sorry that I didn't drop in sooner**_

_**just to see you and see what you've been doin'.**_

_**If I imagine you, body next to another.**_

_**So it's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

_**It's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

_**It's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

_**It's been so long since you said,**_

_**Well I know what I want and what I want's right here with you.**_

The last ten seconds or so were purely guitar and Charlie ended in relief. She'd made it through the entire song without a hitch, so she gave herself another imaginary pat on the back.

Mr. Schuester started the clapping, the rest of the group followed suit as he made his way up to Charlie and stood next to her.

"Alright, so I'm pretty sure it's unanimous…" He turned his attention from the group sitting in their chairs, to Charlie. "You're in."

Charlie responded with a full smile, before clenching her right fist next to her face and flexing her entire arm. "Yes!" She added to her response.

"Heh, alright, you can go take your seat again and we'll get going on today's lesson." Mr. Schuester replied, easily catching Charlie's enthusiasm.

She followed his orders, taking her seat once again, in between Rachel and Brittany.

Mr. Schuester walked over to his whiteboard and wrote in big letters.

**BROADWAY**

This was followed by a few sighs from most of the members and several shrieks from Rachel and Kurt.

"I don't think I really have to explain what you'll be doing this week and to make it even easier, we'll have a boys versus girls competition." Several of the students' displeasure quickly changed into joy with that. "You have until Friday, so split up into your respective groups and get to work." Mr. Schuester stated, before everyone rose and went to different spots in the choir room.

"Kurt." Mr. Schuester added, knowing all too well which group he would try and join.

"Ugh." He replied, making his way over to the rest of the boys, who were sitting and standing at the top level of seats.

Rachel was quick to whip out her iPod, which had an extensive collection of Broadway songs. Brittany and Santana were the first to look over it and were quickly bombarded with songs from classics like Bewitched, Wicked, Chicago, Mamma Mia, Phantom of The Opera, Rent, Westside Story, etcetera, but nothing seemed to stand out to Santana, until a certain word came up.

"The Bitch of Living?" Santana asked Rachel, with a confused look on her face.

Charlie giggled.

"Yes Santana, 'The Bitch of Living', from Spring Awakening… What's so funny Charlie?"

"Never mind." She mumbled in reply, not wanting to explain.

"Well now you have to tell us." Mercedes added.

"Fine… Although, I'm surprised Rachel didn't already know… The song- The song is about…" She paused, thinking of an easy way to put it. "It's about masturbating." Charlie whispered.

"What! No it's not." Rachel nearly yelled.

"Google it." Charlie simply returned.

Taking the iPod away from the two former cheerios who were now giggling, to use the internet.

"Holy crap… She's right." Rachel finally said, clearly in shock. "How did you know that?"

"I do more than just play hockey you know." Charlie countered playfully.

"Yeah, but you like musicals, who'd a thought? Maybe you and I will get along after all." Rachel returned, still in disbelief.

"Whatever, I think it's a perfect song. Let's do it." Santana jumped into the conversation, in a completely serious tone.

"No way, find something else!" Rachel exclaimed.

"You find one then." Santana said, clearly upset that her choice was denied.

"I don't think Mr. Schue would let us sing it anyway." Quinn added.

"Yeah, I think you have a point there." Charlie replied.

"Alright guys, how about… La Vie Bohème?" Rachel asked enthusiastically.

"No." The rest of group answered quickly.

"Dancing Queen?"

"No."

"All That Jazz?"

"No."

This would go on for most of the remaining meeting time, until the very end, when Brittany thought of one.

**A/N: Okay, so I now finally have an idea of what I want to happen (at least for the next few chapters), I just have little, to no idea **_**how **_**they will happen. I think that makes sense…**

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoy. I know this chapter is quite long compared to the other ones, but I'm trying to be more descriptive with things. So through trial and error I hope to accomplish that.**

**Enjoy and thanks for reading, reviewing, favouriting, etcetera.**

**-Abi**


	5. Leads, Small Talk, 80's Movies

Brittany's idea seemed to come out of nowhere, but it sure was a good one and as soon as the entire group heard it, they knew it was the one. Rachel started to assign jobs immediately.

"Okay… Santana and Brittany, you'll work on choreography and Mercedes and Tina, you're in charge of the outfits." Rachel stated, before quickly realizing the most important thing. "Oh and we'll need two leads." She said, looking around at the surprised faces of the rest of the girls. "Usually I would volunteer right away, but since this year is supposed to be all about the group, I thought maybe someone else could take centre stage?" She finally added, somewhat apprehensive if someone was actually capable of pulling it off.

"Sorry, but neither of the parts are really in my range. Too high and too low." Mercedes was the first to reply.

"Yes and that's why I was kind of thinking Charlie could take the male lead and Quinn the female." Rachel suggested, not skipping a beat.

"Fine by me because there's no way I'm playing a dude and besides, the dancing from the clip you just showed us was pretty badass… for an old song. So I'm fine with just the chorus parts." Santana proclaimed.

"Yeah… and I don't even know how to pronounce the title." Brittany mumbled, receiving several worried looks in return.

"I'm out as well." Tina finally broke the awkward silence from Brittany's confession.

"Okay, so it's settled then. Charlie and Quinn, it looks like you'll be playing our Bert and Mary." Rachel repeated, giving them each a smile.

"Well it looks like there's no way out of it. So… I'm fine with it. What about you?" Charlie finally replied, looking over at Quinn.

"Yeah, sure. That'd be okay." Quinn answered nervously.

It wasn't long after they decided their song and who would take the leads, that Mr. Schuester dismissed the entire group.

"Alright, go home guys. We'll pick this up tomorrow."

All of the guys, with the exception of Kurt, were the first to leave and in a hurry at that. It was unknown whether they'd decided on their song choice or even if they'd cared about the assignment, but the girls would most likely find out in a few short days.

Kurt was quick to abandon the departing boys and in what was similar to a skip, he joined the group of girls. He acknowledged Tina and Mercedes, before turning his attention to Charlie.

"Hi, I'd just like to say on behalf of… Well myself, welcome to the team." Kurt greeted her, as he reached out his hand to meet Charlie's. "I'm Kurt by the way."

Charlie had heard the name the night before at dinner; Brittany had mentioned him when they were on the subject of Glee club.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Charlie." She returned shaking his hand, quickly realizing that the entire group had heard her name before, when Mr. Schuester had asked her to perform.

"Pleasure." Kurt added, but not in a sarcastic or egotistical way, as it was usually said. He actually seemed quite nice.

Kurt linked his arms with Tina and Mercedes before leaving the rest of the girls as they walked towards the door to leave.

"See you guys tomorrow." Mercedes called back to the remaining girls, turning her head to give them a smile.

"Bye." Tina and Kurt said nearly in sync.

Mr. Schuester was the next to leave, asking the girls to turn of the lights and close the door before they left. Not too long after, Santana and Brittany followed suit. As soon as they'd left, something hit Quinn.

"Wait guys!" She shouted from the basically empty room, before running towards the door. "You drove me this morning!" She added, looking out into the empty hallway. She just missed them.

"I can give you a lift if you'd like."

Quinn turned back around, realizing that she had no chance of catching up with the two girls now, her hazel eyes meeting with Charlie's equally brilliant blue eyes. "Oh, you don't have to do that. It's only a twenty or so minute walk. I'm sure my body could take it." Quinn replied, adding a chuckle to the end of her statement.

"No, it's totally cool. I have nothing else to do and besides, it's not really out of the way." Charlie insisted, giving Quinn a sweet smile.

"Thanks."

The two walked out of the room, Charlie remembering what Mr. Schuester had said to do before leaving. The walk to the car was silent, with the exception of the sound of their shoes squeaking on the freshly mopped floor and a vacuum going in one of the closed classrooms.

"So… what are your plans for tonight?" Charlie asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Um… not much as far as I know. There's no homework because of all of the tests today, so I'll probably just stay home and watch TV or listen to music." The smaller girl replied, looking over to the drivers side seat to see Charlie giving her an acknowledging smile. "Something like that." She added, returning the smile. "What about you?"

"Same." Charlie was quick to reply. "I was supposed to go out of town to my brother's hockey game, but I hate spectating, so I told them to go without me." It wasn't the main reason, but it wasn't a lie. Charlie hated going to watch Chris' games, the stands were always full of screaming hockey moms and one of them was usually hers, so she hated the embarrassment and only went to crucial games.

"Hockey must run in your family, huh?" Quinn stated, looking at the road ahead of them.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, my dad and his brothers played when they were teenagers… then my mom figure skated and her brothers played hockey and some of my uncle's kids followed suit." Charlie answered. "So yeah… I guess you could say it's a family thing." She added, punctuated with a chuckle.

"Have any of them made it to the NHL?" Quinn asked, clearly interested.

"One of my uncles - on my dad's side - was drafted by Pittsburgh, but with the exception of a few games in the mid-nineties, he's been stuck in the minors ever since." Charlie returned, trying to remember the time she'd seen him play when she and her brother were just infants. "But apparently one of my cousins is supposed to be drafted this year, so that'll be cool, I guess." The brunette added, once again trying to sound laid back.

"What about you and your brother?" Quinn said, posing another question, still interested in the conversation.

"My brother wants to play in the CHL." Charlie stated, noticing the slightly confused look on the blonde girls face, she clarified. "It's basically the place where many hockey players go to play before being drafted."

"Do you think he'll make it?"

"I think he will. Although, it depends who you ask, because my mom wants him to go play at a college somewhere, then my dad doesn't like to look too far ahead. So it's really up in the air as to where he'll go."

"…And you?" Quinn asked, realizing that Charlie didn't mention anything about her future.

"At this point, I don't really know. I mean, I love playing, but I don't think I want to make a career or anything out of it." Charlie replied, noticing how much of this car ride's conversation has been about her. "What about your family, any sports?"

"Well my grandpa and dad played football, but since other than them it's been all girls, that trend quickly stopped.'" Quinn stated, continuing to think about her family's sporting traditions. "As for my mom, she was a cheerleader. So my sister and I became cheerleaders, but I never really liked it." Quinn declared, realizing this was the first time she'd ever told someone that she didn't really care for cheerleading and only used it as a way to bond with her mom and to gain popularity.

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, the car pulled onto their road. Quinn was relieved that she wouldn't have to elaborate. Their homes were both near the very end of the long road, so they still had a minute or two until they arrived.

"Do you want to come over tonight?" Charlie asked, not knowing where this sudden courage came from. "To work on our songs, I mean." She added, trying to explain the reason behind her request.

"Sure." Quinn was quick to reply.

The car pulled into the Gauthier's driveway, coming to a halt a few feet from the garage door. The two walked toward the door, before Charlie quickly turned to look around at the smaller girl following behind her.

"You're not allergic to dogs, right?"

"No, why?" Quinn asked, even though she had a pretty good idea why she's asked that question.

Charlie turned back to the door and unlocked it with a quick rotation of her key in the lock.

"Meet Ed." The brunette stated, opening the door as a fat, caramel coloured bulldog waddled out.

Quinn crouched down to get a better look at his adorably ugly face and to rub his jowls. "He's so cute!" Quinn exclaimed, she'd always wanted a dog, but with her parents' extremely clean and fragile house, it'd always been a firm "no".

Charlie continued to walk in the house, placing her shoes on a mat to her left. "Alright, come on butt-face."

"Hey." Quinn replied jokingly.

"Okay, I guess the dog can come inside too." Charlie added, in a completely joking manner.

The two still remaining outside walked into the house.

"You can just put you shoes on the mat to your left and make yourself at home." Charlie stated from the kitchen. "Do you want anything to eat or drink? I can order a pizza if you'd like."

"Sure, sounds good." Quinn replied, sitting down on the beige couch in the family room just off of the kitchen. She looked around at everything, it all looked so… comfortable. There were family pictures on the mantle above their stone fireplace. A large television was placed in the corner, with plenty of books in the stand below it. What she assumed was Ed's dog mat laid in front of the old and fairly worn coffee table. The final thing she noticed, before Charlie joined her in the room, was a cabinet filled with what looked like objects from around the world. "What's all that stuff?" Quinn asked, pointing towards the aforementioned cabinet.

"Just some things my mom picked up on a few of her trips." Charlie replied, handing Quinn a bottle of water.

"Did you do go on any of the trips?"

"A few." Charlie replied, nodding in unison. "But most of them my mom went on for work."

"What does she do?" Quinn asked, intrigued.

"She's a children's doctor, so she's gone with Doctors Without Borders to lots of places around the world."

"That's so cool!" Quinn returned, she'd realized in the past few years that she wanted to learn more about the medical field and possibly pursue a career in it.

"Yeah, I guess. In the past it was kinda hard, her being halfway around the world and stuff, but in the end it made us closer as a family… and besides, she hasn't gone on a trip in a couple years, so it's been easier." Charlie commented, trying to give both the positives and negatives of what her mothers' job entails. "So most of the things are from her trips, with the exception of a few things from the UK, when my dad went there to report on the G-20 Summit in London last year." She added, trying to change the subject.

"Let me guess, he's a writer." Quinn responded.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Charlie replied, surprised at not only Quinn's great guess, but also the fact that she was so interested in what her parents did.

Quinn didn't say anything, instead she just pointed up at the three plaques on the far wall.

**WRITER OF THE YEAR**

_Presented to_

**Étienne Jean Claude Gauthier**

In recognition of your outstanding performance as a senior writer.

January 31, 2008

**Toronto Star**

The other two plaques said the exact same thing, just with a different date of course.

"That would probably give it away." Charlie said, acknowledging the wooden objects on the wall. "So, about that pizza." The brunette was quick to change the subject. "What would you like on your half?" She asked, scanning through the phonebook for the pizza section of the yellow pages.

"Uh… Hawaiian, please." Quinn quickly replied. She'd tried bacon on pizza once, but the combo was terrible, so ham was her next best option.

"Nice, so I guess it'll just be a whole Hawaiian pizza then." Charlie added, as she finally found the number to a pizza place.

The pizza was ordered and Quinn interrupted the sufficiently awkward silence. "You were great in Glee club today, by the way. I think you'll fit in nicely." She stated, giving Charlie a gentle smile.

"Thanks. I'd most likely say the same, had I heard you sing." The taller girl replied, returning the smile.

"Heh, thanks… What band was it?"

"Tegan and Sara."

"That's what I was thinking when I heard the lyrics."

"Oh, are you a fan?" Charlie asked, trying not to sound too enthusiastic, even though she loved finding people who liked them as well.

"I guess… I mean, I have a few of their albums on my iPod and I've seen a few of their concert videos online, they're really funny." Quinn replied.

"It's a Canadian thing." The brunette added with a giggle.

Quinn couldn't help but laugh at that statement as well. "You were really getting into it." She added, looking up at the girl sitting next to her on the couch, noticing her apprehension. "In a good way, don't worry. Like the song really meant something to you." She added reassuringly.

"Breakup songs will do that." Charlie replied, giving her a 'you know what I mean' smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I had no idea." Quinn said apologetically.

"Don't worry, it was a while ago, way before I moved here and besides we were only together a few months." Charlie tried to reassure her.

"A few months is still a long time… at least in high school it is." Quinn explained to Charlie. "What happened?" She asked, before realizing that she may be crossing the line of their newly formed friendship. "If you don't mind me asking."

"No, it's cool." The brunette started. "We just kind of grew apart. It was both of our first relationships, so it was more of a learning experience than anything else. We both decided it was better off as a friendship, so that was that."

Quinn looked back up at Charlie, noticing the glare in her eyes, as if she were looking back on things. "What was his name?" She asked, breaking the taller girl out of her trance.

Charlie knew she had to tell her, it would only be a matter of time before people started to find out, so the sooner the better. "_Her_ name was Sofia." She was able to say after a few seconds, really enunciating the pronoun. Looking up at the blonde girl next to her, she noticed the surprised look on her face.

"Oh, you're…" Quinn trailed off, still in shock.

"Gay." Charlie finished the end of her statement. "Yes, gay as a Christmas tree." She joked, trying to ease the situation, to no avail. "Don't worry, last time I checked it's not contagious." The brunette added, finally snapping Quinn out of her current state.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, or anything." The smaller girl nearly pleaded. "I swear."

"No, it's totally fine. You actually took it quite well, considering we've only known each other for around twenty hours." Charlie assured her.

"Good, because I'm totally fine with it- with you- with your life- with your…" Quinn trailed off yet again. "You know what I mean." She added, exhaling loudly.

"Yeah. Okay… let's get back on track. What about you?" Charlie asked, assuming she'd know what she meant.

"I'm not gay." Quinn quickly clarified.

"No, I meant are you single, dating, what?" Charlie responded, trying not to giggle at Quinn's obvious discomfort.

"Oh, sorry. I'm… um… newly single, I guess." Quinn mumbled, trying to dissipate the blush from her cheeks.

"Is he someone I've met?" Charlie asked, knowing she'd shared more than Quinn possibly could.

"Yeah, the blonde kid with the big lips, his name is Sam… We only dated for a few weeks, but we were just too different. Plus we looked like we could be siblings, so that was weird." She replied, chuckling at her final sentence.

"… and because he's gay." Charlie added under her breath.

"What?" Quinn asked, not catching what she'd said.

"Nothing."

"I heard you say something, what was it?" Quinn asked again, her eyes now meeting Charlie's.

"He's gay." She simply stated.

"What would make you think that?" Quinn posed yet another question, this seemed to be turning into a game of twenty questions.

"Being gay, I was given the gift of gaydar and I'm pretty sure he bats for my team." Charlie responded, giving Quinn a smirk.

"Alright, if you think your "gaydar" is so good, let me test it out." Quinn stated, returning Charlie's smirk, only this time with a bit more venom.

"Okay and how do you plan on doing that?" Charlie asked, wanting to hear more.

"Well since you've met most of the kids in Glee club, I'll give you some of their names and you tell me - with detail - what you think." Quinn stated, still a slightly evil look in her eyes. "Ready?"

Charlie nodded.

"I'll start you off with an easy one, Kurt."

"Gay, totally gay. The scarf, tight pants… Need I go on?"

"Alright, that was a simple one. What about… Finn?"

"Straight as an arrow. I saw him try to dance during lunch one day and he moves like a T-Rex."

"Okay, Brittany?"

"Bi, although I think she's more of just a people person, rather than someone who identifies as anything."

"Santana?"

"Same thing as Brittany, but she has an attitude, wears a lot of leather and kick ass at sports so I think she may be more on the gay side."

"Rachel?"

"Spaghetti girl." Charlie mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Um, Rachel… I think she's mostly straight, but I wouldn't be surprised if she dated a girl."

"Okay… What about your explanation for Sam?"

"The bleached hair, the way he pouts his lips, he knew all of the words to the song I performed, plus he was eyeing Sam for most of the Glee club meeting."

Quinn couldn't really disagree with any of the analyses. She'd always thought Sam was lying when he said he was straight when they went on their first date, but Quinn was in no position to make assumptions, unlike Charlie.

"What about me?" Quinn asked, wanting to hear Charlie's theory.

"You said you weren't gay though." Charlie was quick to reply.

"Yeah, but how do you know I'm not lying and besides, I can't wait to hear what you have to say." Quinn insisted, punctuating her request with an endearing smile.

"Sorry, can't." Charlie returned, turning her head away from the blonde girl still sitting next to her on the couch.

"What, why?" Quinn asked, giving her the what-the-hell face.

"I'm only willing to do it behind peoples' backs." Charlie answered, turning back to Quinn, giving her a somewhat apologetic face, before she chuckled at the look on the smaller girls face.

Quinn acknowledged what she said and proceeded to turn to face the other way on the couch, her back to Charlie. "Alright, go ahead." She added, jokingly.

"You know what I meant." Charlie replied, laughing at Quinn's back that had been placed in front of her.

"Fine." Quinn muttered through an exasperated breath.

They hadn't realized how long they'd been talking, until the sound of the doorbell startled them.

Ed awoke from his slumber to give a loud "woof" to the door for awakening him.

The large pizza was paid for and Charlie brought it back to the family room to eat.

"It doesn't look like we'll be working on our song, do you want to just watch a movie or something?" Charlie asked Quinn, who had stood up from the couch to pet Ed, in order to stop his barking.

"Yeah, sounds fine. What'd you have in mind?" Quinn replied, going back to the couch to grab a slice of pizza.

"We have a few over there." Charlie pointed over to a cabinet to the right of the TV. "Take your pick."

Quinn placed her partially eaten slice of pizza on the underside of the pizza box's lid and walked over to the collection of DVD's. "A few?" Quinn exclaimed. "There has to be at least a hundred and fifty movies here." She looked over them all, by the time she reached the last shelf, she'd picked out four movies: Juno, Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "Your turn to pick." Quinn stated, as she showed her the four movies.

"Hmm." Charlie mumbled as she looked over the choices. "Breakfast Club sounds good."

"I was thinking the exact same thing." Quinn added, handing Charlie the DVD.

By the time they'd finished watching the movie, two thirds of the pizza was gone and both girls were curled up on either end of the very comfy couch.

Charlie looked down at the time on her iPod. "Man, it's only 7:30. It feels so much later." She stated with a grunt as she sat up on the couch.

"I know, right? You wanna watch another movie?" Quinn asked, repositioning herself on the couch to face the brunette next to her.

"Sure, which one?"

"Let's make it an eighties night." Quinn replied, grabbing the Ferris Bueller DVD case off of the coffee table in front of them.

"Gotta love John Hughes, eh?" Charlie stated with a chuckle.

"How can you not?" Quinn replied, returning the chuckle.

Quinn grabbed another slice of pizza and took a sip from her bottle of water, before leaning back into the couch. "Play the movie." She added, imitating the three piglets from the Shrek series.

"Yeah… Play." Charlie added in the same accent, before the both laughed at their equally embarrassing behavior.

At some point during the second movie, the two girls had fallen asleep. Charlie woke up just in time to see the final scene of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Ferris was lying on his bed with his hands behind his head, as he said something very profound (Charlie had seen several John Hughes movies, so she knew he almost always ended them like this):

"I said it before and I'll say it again: Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Oh the irony in that statement, because as the credits rolled, Charlie stopped and looked down at her at her side. Quinn was there, cuddled up into her, sound asleep.


	6. Snuggles, Static, Song Selection

Charlie couldn't believe what was happening. She was lying down on her side and back on the couch, with her head placed on the squishy armrest to her left, using it as a pillow. Quinn was also using something as a makeshift pillow and that _something_, was Charlie. With her head in between Charlie's right bicep and chest and her arms placed over her stomach, Quinn was sound asleep. Did people actually cuddle like this, involuntarily? Charlie had thought it'd only been in movies, even books, but not in real life with someone you'd only just met.

'What am I supposed to do, wake her up? … No, that would just make it awkward for both you.' Charlie thought to herself. 'What if I gently slide her over and get off the couch before she wakes up? … No, I'm not that gentle and quick.' She once again said to herself, realizing that nearly every outcome would be sufficiently awkward. 'I'll just pretend to fall back asleep and hopefully when she wakes up, she won't freak out.' Knowing this would probably be her best choice, Charlie did just that.

She placed her head, which had been tilted forward to look at Quinn's face, back on the armrest. Trying not to move too much, she laid there for a few quiet moments, with her eyes shut, before a sound quickly disturbed both of them.

Charlie had forgotten to turn off the movie, so after the credits ended, the screen switched to the main menu and like nearly every DVD, the menu had background music ten times louder than the movie.

Quinn was quick to jump out of her slumber, slowly backing away. First lifting her head from the brunette's torso, trying not to jostle her, assuming she was still asleep. She made her way over to the TV and attempted to turn of the DVD player, loud static was quick to take over the near silence of the room.

Charlie was right on queue, pretending to wake up from the irritating sound. She sat up quickly and rubbed her eyes for effect. "I think you might've hit the wrong button." Charlie noted sarcastically.

Quinn chuckled. "Heh. Yeah, I think you might be right."

"Just click the button at the bottom right of the TV." Charlie said pointing towards the side of said TV.

Quinn took a big step over to her right, clicked the button that Charlie had mentioned and that quickly halted the static sound and sent the screen to black.

"Sorry about waking you up." Quinn added, trying to sound as apologetic as possible.

"Don't worry about it… If anything I owe you a thank you because had you not, I probably would've been awake all night because of this impromptu nap session." Charlie returned, noticing how sorry the blonde girl was. "Sorry about that. I hope you didn't find it weird watching the movie with me sound asleep next to you." Charlie added, knowing that the girl had also fallen asleep… on top of her.

"Oh! No, don't worry about it. I might've dozed off as well." Quinn replied quickly, not bothering to mention the part about cuddling.

"Heh, that's cool." Charlie stated, giving Quinn a smile.

Quinn walked back towards the couch, but stopped a few feet away, picked up her nearly finished water bottle and chugged the last few sips. With a heavy exhale, Quinn turned her attention back to Charlie. "Well I should get going… It's-" She looked down at her watch. "Nearly ten." She concluded, walking towards the front door.

Charlie followed Quinn's lead towards the door. "Yeah… Time sure does fly when you're watching eighties movies." Charlie returned.

"Or sleeping through them." Quinn replied with a chuckle, as she slid her shoes and coat on.

"Yeah, that too." Charlie added, trying to control her giggle.

"Alright… Well I'll see ya tomorrow." Quinn opened the front door, before turning to give Charlie a hug.

The brunette wasn't expecting it at all. So when Quinn -who was about five or six inches shorter- went in to hug her, her hand placement was rather low.

The nearly touching Charlie's bum, kind of low.

Back home it wasn't uncommon for teenage girls to hug and Charlie actually enjoyed receiving them (even though she rarely did), but it was really only the 'popular girls' who did it for reasons such as saying goodbye at the end of the day and by no means was Charlie a popular girl. Sure she was in most, if not everyone's good books, she was in a few school clubs and of course she played sports, but she was always a quiet one, so the stereotypical teenage girl cliques and activities were definitely not her scene.

The hug was quick, but still full on Quinn's part and when it ended they said their goodnights and that was that.

Not much longer after Quinn left, the other members of the Gauthier family returned from Chris' game.

"Hey hun." Her mom nearly yelled, as she placed her keys and purse on the front hall table and walked into the kitchen where she'd heard Charlie cleaning up. "How was your night?" She added once she saw her daughter.

"Not bad. How was the game?" Charlie replied, meeting her eyes with her mothers.

"Good, they won." She answered, noticing the nearly empty pizza box on the table. "You ate all of that by yourself?" She asked, somewhat surprised.

"No… No, I had a friend over and we watched a couple movies."

"Oh, are they on the hockey team?"

"No… Actually I'm in glee club with her."

"What's that?"

"Only the gayest club in school." Chris took this as his queue to join in on the conversation.

"Hey! What did we say about saying things like that?" Her father asked in a 'you know better' tone.

"Sorry." Her brother grumbled.

"Don't tell me. Your sister's the one you should be apologizing to." He said, pointing towards Charlie.

Chris turned from his father towards Charlie, who was standing by the counter, with her hands in her pockets.

"I'm sorry I used that term." Chris all but mumbled, before looking back at his dad who motioned for him to continue. He let out a breath and did just that. "There is nothing wrong with being gay… and it's actually kind of cool that you are, because you're willing to play Xbox with me." Chris continued to mumble.

"You realize that has nothing to do with being gay, right?" Charlie lowered an eyebrow towards him.

"Oh… okay, well it's still fine with me that you're into chicks and stuff. Plus you're still my sister… So I, like, would still care about no matter who you were into." This wasn't the first time he'd had to apologize for something he'd said, but it was still hard for him to not be a coward and admit when he was wrong.

Charlie sensed his discomfort, so she jumped in. "I accept your apology." She said swiftly. "… And I know you didn't mean it in a rude way, but all I ask is that you choose your words wisely and make sure you understand everything that you say or do. Okay?" Charlie, who was about the same height as her brother, looked him dead in the eye, waiting for his response.

He nodded and agreed to do what she asked.

"Good…Well this was sufficiently awkward, so I'm just gonna go upstairs now." She looked around at her parents before heading upstairs for the night. "Night. Love you." Charlie said from the top of the stairs down towards her parents.

School was uneventful and actually went by fairly quick and before Charlie knew it, it was time for Glee club. She wasn't the first person to arrive, Rachel was already present (which Charlie knew would be a common thing), looking over some sheet music and on the other side of the room were Tina, Kurt and Mercedes, presumably gossiping about school and celebrity related things. Charlie gave them all a quick wave and took a seat in the front row.

The remaining members arrived shortly thereafter, taking their seats as Mr. Schuester started the lesson.

"Alright, who can explain this to the group?" He asked, after writing MEDLEY on the board.

"My neighbours dog is named Dudley, so Medley is probably his sister." Brittany was first to reply.

Most of the group was used to her level of cluelessness, so only a few shot her a confused look.

"It's a collection of songs or other musical items performed as a continuous piece." Rachel stated confidently. "But I don't see why you're doing this? You already assigned this weeks project. So shouldn't we be wor-" Rachel continued, only before being interrupted by Mr. Schuester.

"Well after yesterday's lesson, I've realized that there are a few people who don't seem to be participating as much as others." He gave a group of boys in the back a quick look. "So… I think we need to up the ante a bit and make it so you all have to contribute and work together."

"What's in it for us?" Puck asked, not at all amused.

"I figured someone would ask that and that's why I've decided that if you all try your hardest, as a 'prize', the team who I think gives it the most effort can decide what next week's song subject will be." He stated, glancing around to all of their faces. "Sound fair?"

The silence broke with a few 'yeahs' and 'sures'.

"Good, so a medley as Rachel already explained is a collection of songs performed as one piece… With that in mind I want you to break into your groups from yesterday and think of two more songs to accompany the one you already chose. They don't necessarily have to go together, but I'd like to see each member get at least one solo." Mr. Schuester explained to the club, making sure they were all following along with what he was saying. "I know it'll be tough, but just remember you guys were able to do it last year at sectionals. So this'll be a cake walk." He assured them all.

"Wait, we get cake?" Brittany quietly asked Santana, who just replied with a gentle pat on the thigh.

The girls and Kurt quickly agreed to the challenge and the boys followed, still a little apprehensive.

"Get to work then!" Mr. Schuester finally said, leaving his spot by the whiteboard to go talk to Brad by the piano, giving the two groups their space.

"Okay, so Quinn and Charlie are still doing their song." Rachel stated, after joining her teammates on the left side of the room. Quinn and Charlie gave each other a nod in agreement. "What about the rest of us, any ideas?"

"So I was watching Dirty Dancing last night." Santana started as the rest of the girls, excluding Brittany gave her a strange look. 'Shut up." She muttered, noticing the looks on their faces. "As I was saying, Dirty Dancing was on and I know the perfect song Britt and I could do." The Latina finally concluded.

No one questioned her announcement; instead they just nodded in agreement.

"Great, so what about us?" Mercedes added, pointing to Tina and Rachel who were sitting on either side of her.

"I have an idea." Rachel stated, quickly raising a hand before anyone had a chance to protest. "Before you shut me down, just hear me out." She looked around at their skeptical faces.

After a short pause the small brunette finally announced her song suggestion. "Honey, Honey."

No one had anything to say, as none of them had any clue what song that was.

"Oh come on guys… Mamma Mia?" Rachel asked in disbelief and at that, everyone -but Brittany- finally clued in to what song she was talking about.

Santana sensing her best friend's confusion, whispered into her ear so only she could hear what she was saying. "You remember Halloween weekend?" Brittany nodded, remembering she'd spent it with Santana. "The day before the trick-or-treating, you and I watched Mamma Mia at your house, while your parents took your sister to the Lima Halloween party." Brittany recalls the event and chuckled when Santana said 'watched', considering they spent most of the time alone making out on her bed. Santana gently shushed her, before continuing her explanation. "It was one of the songs in the movie… The girl from Mean Girls performed it, with the two girls you thought were lesbians."

"Oh, okay. Gotcha!" Brittany whispered in return, fully understanding what everyone was talking about.

Santana moved out of Brittany's personal space and nodded to the other girls, giving them the go-ahead to continue.

"I could easily divide the verses and we could just layer our voices during the chorus." Rachel stated matter-of-factly. "Sound good?" 

"Yeah, sounds good." Tina was the first to reply.

"Fine Berry, but make sure it's all fair. As I've said before; I ain't no Kelly Rowland." Mercedes answered back with her usual attitude.

"Alright, so… Santana and Brittany, do you guys need any back ups for your number?" Rachel asked, making notes in her mind.

"Not to sing or anything, but we'll probably need a few of you to stand as sort of a wall and just..." Santana replied, pausing to think of the best word to use.

"Sway." Brittany said, finishing her sentence like an old married couple would.

"Okay, sounds fine." Rachel stated, still in deep thought. "How about we do Honey, Honey first, then you two can go." She pointed to the two former cheerios. "And we'll finish it off with our original number."

The rest of the group replied with a few yeah's and alright's.

"Since we don't really have tons of time to work on this here, it'd probably be best if we just worked on the final number as a group and then Brittany and Santana could work on their number at home or wherever… and same goes for you guys." Charlie suggested, knowing it'd probably be a good idea.

Everyone agreed and the group got to work doing just that for the remaining part of the hour.

"Hey, I'll see you later?" Charlie said to Santana, more as a statement then a question, as the Latina was walking out of the choir room, arms linked with Brittany's.

"Yeah, see ya then 'Goat'." Santana replied, not even turning around to make eye contact.

"Goat?" A familiar voice said from behind Charlie.

She turned around to see Quinn standing there, her arms crossed and a slightly confused look on her face. "Yeah… Gauthier, goat." Charlie replied calmly. "Santana's not the most original person."

"Tell me about it, last year she kept calling me Ba-" Quinn stopped herself, realizing she'd yet to tell Charlie about her predicament last year. Quinn thought of things that started with 'BA'… "Bacon." She said quickly.

"Bacon?" Charlie asked, not totally believing that someone would call anyone, especially Quinn that.

"Yeah… I uh… love bacon." Quinn replied, trying to sound convincing.

"Really?"

"Of course!" Quinn exclaimed, slightly overenthusiastic. "It's crispy, savory… and absolutely delicious." She stated honestly.

"That it is." Charlie returned, giving Quinn a sweet smile.

They started to walk towards the choir room door, only stopping to give Mr. Schuester a wave goodbye.

"Good luck tonight." Mr. Schuester said, returning their waves.

"Thanks. See you tomorrow." Charlie returned as she and Quinn left the room.

They continued to walk down the hallway towards the exit to the student parking lot.

"You need another ride?" Charlie asked, breaking the silence.

"No, I'm fine, thanks." Quinn replied, chuckling slightly at the memory of her yelling out of the choir room at Santana and Brittany just the day before. "What time does your game start tonight?" Quinn questioned, changing the subject.

"Uh… six." Charlie answered, trying not to jump to conclusions as to why Quinn was asking.

"Cool… Right, I remember your coach yelling that after your game on Monday." Quinn said, nodding at Charlie.

"How come?" The taller girl asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Oh… well with both you and Santana on the team and then Brittany watching, I'm kind of a loner these days." Quinn stated honestly, before realizing how pathetic that sounded. "That's not to say I have barely any friends, it's just… since S, Britt and I left the team, Coach Sylvester has turned all of the girls from the squad on us by not coaching the team anymore. So the people I used to hang out with are a no go zone now."

"That must suck." Charlie gave her a sympathetic look. "You three must've been really important, if she just basically gave up once you left?"

"I guess… I mean, I was captain for part of last year and then this year, Santana was the one who put fear in all of them and then Brittany… well Britt was the best dancer on the squad and was always by Santana's side. So yeah… I guess we were important, but let's just get one thing clear… Sue does not 'give up'. She leaves when she wants and if people suffer in the process, so be it. She'll never admit defeat, because she's never defeated. It's just the way it is." They were now both stopped near the end of the hallway.

"I know the type. He might not have been as bad as the crazy lady you just described, but I had a gym teacher last year, Mr. Wright was his name and man did it suit him. We even had a little jingle made up about him…" Charlie said in an understanding tone, before reciting the song.

_Mr. Wright and never wrong_

_Basketball, soccer_

_Even ping-pong_

_In the locker_

_On the court,_

_A mocker, gawker_

_Tall or short_

Charlie performed the song, even throwing in a few dance moves, before she stopped and slouched down and said the last line in a deep monotone.

_**He'll make you run laps.**_

"Oh my god, that was great!" Quinn gave Charlie a few appreciative claps while she giggled. "It's so ironic too… 'cause last year a few of the Cheerios, San, Britt and I included, were joking around and we made a jingle of our own." Charlie raised an eyebrow at the thought. "And this is how it goes." Quinn exclaimed rhythmically.

_Sue, Sue, she hates you_

_Nerd, freak_

_Christian or Jew_

_On her side?_

_She doesn't care_

_Gone to hide?_

_Don't you dare_

_Winning and money_

_That's her rule_

_Some may say funny_

_Others cruel_

_So watch her aim_

_And take the hit_

_That's her game_

_And how Sue sees it._

As she said the last line, Quinn made a 'C' with her hand, mocking Sue's signature signoff.

"Wow… that was just…" Charlie gave her a round of applause. "…Wow."

"Oh, why thank you. You're too kind." Quinn joked through a British accent.

The two went back to walking towards the parking lot, waving goodbye once they found their respective cars.

**A/N: For anyone who's been following this story, Sorry about the wait. I had some writer's block after writing about 80% of this chapter, but since writing a chapter of a different story last night, I've conquered the blockage. So here is chapter six!**

**Thanks for reading, Abi.**


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